ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the early efforts to collectively bargain in Illinois, a key state in the history of faculty unionization and labor organizing more broadly. The unionization of college faculty has a long history, dating to the organization of the first American Federation of Teachers (AFT) local at Howard University in 1918, but it substantially grew and changed in the mid-to-late 1960s with significant efforts for and success in collective bargaining. The chapter centers on the efforts of two unions at four institutions: the City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago State College, Northeastern Illinois State College (NISC), and Belleville Junior College. Faculty at the first three joined the Cook County College Teachers Union (CCCTU). At the City Colleges, the majority of faculty were members and they successfully struck for bargaining rights in late 1966, and then again in early 1967 to facilitate negotiations for their first contract.
